The following patent relates to an overall hardware configuration that produces an enhanced spatial television-like viewing experience. Unlike normal television, with this system the viewer is able to control both the viewing direction and relative position of the viewer with respect to the movie action. In addition to a specific hardware configuration, this patent also relates to a new video format which makes possible this virtual reality like experience. Additionally, several proprietary video compression standards are also defined which facilitate this goal. The VTV system is designed to be an intermediary technology between conventional two-dimensional cinematography and true virtual reality. There are several stages in the evolution of the VTV system ranging from, in its most basic form, a panoramic display system to, in its most sophisticated form featuring full object based virtual reality utilizing animated texture maps and featuring live actors and/or computer-generated characters in a full “environment aware” augmented reality system.
As can be seen in FIG. 1 the overall VTV system consists of a central graphics processing device (the VTV processor), a range of video input devices (DVD, VCR, satellite, terrestrial television, remote video cameras), infrared remote control, digital network connection and several output device connections. In its most basic configuration as shown in FIG. 2, the VTV unit would output imagery to a conventional television device. In such a configuration a remote control device (possibly infrared) would be used to control the desired viewing direction and position of the viewer within the VTV environment. The advantage of this “basic system configuration” is that it is implementable utilizing current audiovisual technology. The VTV graphics standard is a forwards compatible graphics standard which can be thought of as a “layer” above that of standard video. That is to say conventional video represents a subset of the new VTV graphics standard. As a result of this standard's compatibility, VTV can be introduced without requiring any major changes in the television and/or audiovisual manufacturers specifications. Additionally, VTV compatible television decoding units will inherently be compatible with conventional television transmissions.
In a more sophisticated configuration, as shown in FIG. 3, the VTV system uses a wireless HMD as the display device. In such a configuration the wireless HMD can be used as a tracking device in addition to simply displaying images. This tracking information in the most basic form could consist of simply controlling the direction of view. In a more sophisticated system, both direction of view and position of the viewer within the virtual environment can be determined. Ultimately, in the most sophisticated implementation, remote cameras on the HMD will provide to the VTV system, real world images which it will interpret into spatial objects, the spatial objects can then be replaced with virtual objects thus providing an “environment aware” augmented reality system.
The wireless HMD is connected to the VTV processor by virtue of a wireless data link “Cybernet link”. In its most basic form this link is capable of transmitting video information from the VTV processor to the HMD and transmitting tracking information from the HMD to the VTV processor. In its most sophisticated form the cybernet link would transmit video information both to and from the HMD in addition to transferring tracking information from the HMD to the VTV processor. Additionally certain components of the VTV processor may be incorporated in the remote HMD thus reducing the data transfer requirement through the cybernet link. This wireless data link can be implemented in a number of different ways utilizing either analog or digital video transmission (in either an un-compressed or a digitally compressed format) with a secondary digitally encoded data stream for tracking information. Alternately, a purely digital uni-directional or bi-directional data link which carries both of these channels could be incorporated. The actual medium for data transfer would probably be microwave or optical. However either transfer medium may be utilized as appropriate. The preferred embodiment of this system is one which utilizes on-board panoramic cameras fitted to the HMD in conjunction with image analysis hardware on board the HMD or possibly on the VTV base station to provide real-time tracking information. To further improve system accuracy, retroflective markers may also the utilized in the “real world environment”. In such a configuration, switchable light sources placed near to the optical axis of the on-board cameras would be utilized in conjunction with these cameras to form a “differential image analysis” system. Such a system features considerably higher recognition accuracy than one utilizing direct video images alone.
Ultimately, the VTV system will transfer graphic information utilizing a “universal graphics standard”. Such a standard will incorporate an object based graphics description language which achieves a high degree of compression by virtue of a “common graphics knowledge base” between subsystems. This patent describes in basic terms three levels of progressive sophistication in the evolution of this graphics language.
These three compression standards will for the purpose of this patent be described as:
a) c-com
b) s-com
c) v-com
In its most basic format the VTV system can be thought of as a 360 Degree panoramic display screen which surrounds the viewer.
This “virtual display screen” consists of a number of “video Pages”. Encoded in the video image is a “Page key code” which instructs the VTV processor to place the graphic information into specific locations within this “virtual display screen”. As a result of this ability to place images dynamically it is possible to achieve the effective equivalent to both high-resolution and high frame rates without significant sacrifice to either. For example, only sections of the image which are rapidly changing require rapid image updates whereas the majority of the image is generally static. Unlike conventional cinematography in which key elements (which are generally moving) are located in the primary scene, the majority of a panoramic image is generally static.